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Biographies and Portraits of the Progressive Men of
Iowa C Call, Ambrose A. submitted by Dick Barton Call,
Ambrose A., the
pioneer of Kossuth county and one of the figures around which clusters much of
the historic annals of the past, was born in Huron county, Ohio, on the 9th of
June, 1833. He is the son of Asa
and Mary Metcalf Call, and comes of good stock.
His grandfathers on both sides were of the noble band of patriots that
achieved our national independence in the Revolution, and his father served in
the army that preserved it in the war of 1812-15. When the subject of this sketch was but a few months old his
father died and his widowed mother removed to Cattaraugus county, New York,
where she had friends. Five years
later, however, she returned to the West, going beyond her old home in Ohio and
locating at South Bend, Indiana, where she remained many years.
Ambrose left home at the age of 15, he having received a common school
education in the meanwhile. During
the summer of 1850 he established a news depot at Dayton, Ohio, delivering the
Cincinnati dailies ahead of the mails. The
fall and winter of the same year he attended commercial college in Cincinnati. In the spring of 1854 he turned his steps westward and
brought up in Iowa. At this time he
was but 21 years of age, and in company with his elder brother, Asa C., who had
just returned from the gold fields of California, he came north from Fort Des
Moines, as it was then called, into what is now Kossuth county, arriving there
the 9th of July, 1854, where he formed the nucleus of a settlement by erecting
the first cabin in the county or north of Fort Dodge. In 1861 he established the first newspaper in the county, the
Algona Pioneer Press. This he
continued to edit for several years. Mr.
Call was united in marriage with Nancy E. Henderson of Oskaloosa, Iowa, in
October, 1850. Her ancestors have a historic record in the settlement of
Kentucky. Their union has been
blessed with seven living children: Florence,
wife of Gardner Cowles of Algona; Edith, wife of A. Hutchison, Algona, attorney
and real estate dealer; Etta, wife of W. K. Ferguson, banker, Algona; Bertha,
wife of Dr. Shore of Des Moines; Chester C., and Roscoe and Myrtle, twins. In
politics Mr. Call has ever affiliated with the Republican party, and has taken
great interest in the success of the measures advocated in the platforms of that
party. Although frequently
solicited, Mr. Call has persistently refused political preferment, and has never
been an office-seeker or holder. With
his brother he founded the city of Algona, and was also the founder of Bancroft,
the second town of importance in the county.
Ask him his occupation, and his reply will be: "A farmer,"
which is in fact true, as he has between 2,000 and 3,000
acres of rich Iowa prairie brought under subjection to the plough,
besides some 5,000 acres cultivated in rice in the South.
Conservative in business, Mr. Call has had the good fortune to accumulate
an easy competence. He is president
of the First National bank of Algona, which he organized in 1884, besides having
interests in a number of other banking institutions and is one of Kossuth
county's most prominent representative citizens.
Mr. Call takes a deep interest in the prosperity of the beautiful city of
Algona, of which he was one of the founders, and in recent years has expended
large sums of money in erecting valuable buildings and brick blocks, among which
is the Call opera house, one of the finest opera houses in the state. Mr.
Call was elected county supervisor the first year of the existence of that
office. He was assistant assessor
of the internal revenue four or five years, resigning in 1868, and mayor of the
city in 1893, receiving every vote cast. During
the early part of the centennial year he wrote a series of letters historical of
the county, and by invitation on the centennial of Fourth of July, read an
epitome of those letters. His
writings in this line will increase in value, and will be quoted as historical
authority by the generations to come. He
has the annals of Kossuth county by heart. Call,
Rev. Levi Nelson submitted by
Dick Barton Call,
Rev. Levi Nelson, of Sac City, Prominent among the workers for the promotion and
development of the interests of the Baptist denomination in Iowa is the Rev. Mr.
Call. Few men have been more
steadily and influentially connected with that work, and his name will ever
remain a landmark in the history of that denomination.
His father, David Call, was of Welsh descent.
The mother's ancestors were English.
A large number of the family have been eminent as clergymen and
educators. Levi
Nelson Call was born in Cortland, New York, February 8, 1833.
His theological education was gained by individual study under a private
instructor, with the exception of a brief course of lectures attended during
absences from the active duties of his church.
In February, 1867, he located in Hampton, Iowa, when the population of
the town was about 250. He became
pastor of the Baptist church of that place when services were held in the court
house. The pastorate lasted mare
than eight years, and during that time a commodious house of worship was
erected. Mr. Call was president of
the first school board of the independent district of Hampton.
He later became financial agent of the Cedar Valley Seminary, located at
Osage, and was very successful in his labors to secure an endowment for the
school. In 1876 he located at
Webster City and entered upon a twenty years' pastorate of the Baptist church of
that place. The growth of that
church, now occupying a beautiful and commodious house of worship and having a
membership more than trebled during the pastorate, represents a part of Mr.
Call's work in these years. In the
community he was known and valued as a man of moral earnestness, practical
philanthropy, public spirited and progressive and of ready sympathy for anything
that tended to uplift and ennoble. For
many years he has been a member of the state convention board which has charge
of Baptist missionary work in Iowa, and for the past fifteen years he has been a
member of the executive committee of that board.
In 1883 he served as president of the State Sunday association.
It will be seen from what has been said that most of Mr. Call's life has
been devoted to the work of the gospel ministry.
However, he spent five years as instructor in schools and academies in
West Virginia and Pennsylvania; at the time he pursued higher courses of study.
Then, too, while not an enlisted soldier in the civil war, he was active
in sustaining the Union cause and as engaged in drilling militia and in guarding
railroads in the border state of West Virginia. He
was married May 26, 1855, to Miss Mary Guyon of Hartsville, New York, a woman
whose wise counsel and efficient cooperation have added much to the success of
Mr. Call's work, and whose noble nature and bright and cheerful temperament have
been a potent factor in making their home always a center of elevating and
helpful influences. To
this home five children came, of whom the youngest, Grace, died when 8 years
old. The son, David Forrester Call,
after graduating at an Eastern university, from which he afterward received the
degree of Ph. D., came back to Iowa, where he was at one time president of Des
Moines College. At the time of his
death in 1885 he was professor of Greek in the State University of Iowa. He was taken from his work just when new and greater honors
were coming to him, but not without leaving a deep and lasting impression upon
those who had known him. Of him Dr.
Harper of Chicago University has said that in his death this country has lost
one who would have proved one of its foremost educators. He was succeeded in the Greek department at the State
University by his sister, Leona, who has taught there since with marked success.
Another daughter of Mr. Call, Myra, is professor of Latin in the State
Normal school at Cedar Falls. Both
these sisters are graduates of the State University; both have by post-graduate
study and travel, both in this country and broad, broadened and deepened the
knowledge and culture which they in turn impart to others.
Mr. Call's second daughter, Cora, is the wife of Dr. F. E. Whitley, a
leading physician of Webster City, and is a writer of great promise. In
1896 Mr. Call entered upon the pastorate of the Baptist church of Sac City,
where is located the Sac City Collegiate Institute, which is under the auspices
of the Baptist denomination. Here
his work has been marked by the same success as in his previous pastorates. Any
mere record of the events in such a life is entirely inadequate to tell
its worth or estimate its value.
That could be done only by those who know of the young men whom
he has trained for the ministry, the poor he has aided, the young men
and women he has helped and encouraged to secure an education, and the
many lives that through his influence have been lifted up and blessed. The firm of Clarkson Brothers then formed has never been discontinued at the head of the paper, and it has always been the ambition of Richard, who is the elder of the two, to perpetuate that firm and make it as strong in the second generation as in the first. He probably takes as much pride in having accomplished this purpose as in any and all other achievements of his busy and successful life. James S. Clarkson's entrance into national politics, beginning along about 1880, took him gradually more and more away from his newspaper, until, in 1889, when he had been absent nearly all the time for more than a year, he sold his interest in the paper to his brother for $87,500. The transfer was made December 4, 1889, nineteen years after the Clarkson family had bought the paper from Mills & Co., for $30,000. The firm name of "Clarkson Brothers" was not taken down, and in 1891, when John R. Clarkson, eldest son of Richard P., became twenty-one years of age, he was made business manager and given one-tenth interest in the property. He had been previously trained in the business office, and understands all departments of the newspaper business. In 1895, when Mr. Clarkson's other son, Frank P., became of age, he was made city editor and given one-tenth interest, the same as his brother. When in the spring of 1898 Cyrenus Cole, associate editor of the paper, resigned to become editor of the Cedar Rapids Republican, Frank Clarkson took his place, so that now the responsible positions of editor, associate editor and business manager are all held by Clarksons. R. P. Clarkson has also two daughters: Elizabeth R., married to Judge E. R. Meek of Texas, a United States district judge, and Bertha, the wife of Joseph S. Zwart, of Des Moines. The editor of the Register is perhaps the most misunderstood man in the state. His habits of industry and his unwillingness to spend his time away from his work mingling with other men have given him the reputation of being a recluse, which he does not deserve, for he is always glad to see and talk to persons who have something to say and who say it in a businesslike way. It is true, however, that he is too busy to gossip or visit as some people would like to have him. Not one of his employes puts in as many hours of solid work as the head of the establishment, for he works about sixteen hours a day. Independence, integrity, industry, firmness, kindness and order are the prominent traits of Mr. Clarkson's character, and they manifest themselves every day in his newspaper. When James S., or "Ret," as he was better known, was in the editorial chair the editorial page was often the last one to go to the press room, and he frequently stayed away from his office until late in the evening, and then returned, set two stenographers at work and proceeded to write with lightning rapidity to fill the paper with the ideas and news which he had accumulated during the day. The present editor is quite the reverse. He does his work with careful regularity and according to a system which is never changed. The editorial copy must be in by 5 o'clock, and the editorial page is closed and sent to the stereotype room the first of all. The Clarksons are known in every part of Iowa as loyal friends and dangerous enemies, and fighters always. But no one can show that in all these nearly thirty years of political strife they have ever done a mean or dishonorable thing, though they have often been extremely tenacious about having their own way, both as to candidates and policies, and have made some contests very bitter by stinging personal attacks. They never dispute with the republican party, however, and when a convention has settled a question it is settled in the Register office. But even in the most extreme partisan service there is a high degree of honor, which Mr. Clarkson once showed very plainly to a political manager who tried to publish through the Register a shameful campaign sensation a day or two before election. His suspicion was aroused, and when investigation proved the untruthfulness of the story his indignation was almost uncontrollable, and he ordered every vestige of the story destroyed, though elaborate fac simile plates had been made. He would not allow it taken out of the office. His favorite nickname for the paper is "the always truthful," and he tries to make it deserve the name. He pursues a policy usually conservative, but sometimes radical in the extreme, for, once convinced that he is right, he plunges into a controversy with all his might, and never quits while there is any cause to fight. Yet he is great enough to sometimes own that he has made a mistake that must be corrected. Next to reliability, cleanliness is insisted upon in all departments of the paper, and charity for the unfortunate is never refused. Almost any person who gets into trouble can enlist Mr. Clarkson's sympathies, and especially if an innocent person is to be harmed by publicity, the Register will certainly be silent. The Register is sometimes spoken of as a paper with a heart, because it will never unnecessarily wound the feelings of any one. Mr. Clarkson has no interest outside his newspaper. He has always refused to take stock in local enterprises, though he has been a liberal contributor toward securing them. He has preferred to retain his independence from all obligations outside his own office. In 1867 Mr. Clarkson was married to Miss Aggie Green, and they have one of the happiest and most comfortable homes in Iowa. Of the four children, heretofore referred to, all are married but the eldest, John R., who was born June 21, 1868. Frank P., born July 14, 1874, was married April 29, 1897, to Miss Louise Knott, of Sioux City. They have one child: Katherine L., born February 20, 1898. Elizabeth R., the older daughter, was married October 2, 1890, to E. R. Meek. They have two children: Richard C., born November 12, 1891, and Douglas C., born August 2, 1893. The family lives in Ft. Worth, Texas. Bertha, the youngest child, was married December 27, 1900, to Joseph S. Zwart, of Des Moines.
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